The Smoke Jumper

Of interest because I’ve read at least two other books about smoke jumpers and in the wake of the deaths of the  elite squad of 19 in Arizona in 2013. Nicholas Evans is a British writer famous for The Horse Whisperer. Not as husky as the American Nicholas Sparks who churns out similar tomes. It’s a relief to read a romance novel that doesn’t have the picture of a scantily clad male model splattered across its cover and to have to read about how narrow his hips and waist or how broad his shoulders. These typical idealized male images are about as realistic as the proportions of a Barbie Doll. Male authors tend to have a more realistic approach to the male physique and tend on average to spend less time writing detailed descriptions. Not that anyone is going to mistake this for great literature, just a decent mindless summer’s read.

It takes 560 pages for the star-crossed lovers at the centre of this tale to attain sexual congress even though his donated seed had previously fathered her only child. If you possess a similar fortitude then this should be a worthwhile read. The story is about the journey, not the happily ever after and for once it’s a relief not to read page upon page of bedroom gymnastics. Fire-fighting is only a small segment of the entire tale.

The Bridges of Madison County

Never a good idea to read the book after you’ve seen the movie, they’re too different media and script writers alter books to bring the story to the big screen. This is a work of fiction, no photographer named Robert Kincaid ever worked for National Geographic. Why did the author feel the story’s fundamental conceit need be predicated on a falsehood? The bridges and the countryside are very real, I’ve seen them personally. The home used in the movie was deliberately burned as was the bridge where the two met. Movies show, books tell so here we follow Kincaid on his drive from Bellingham, Washington and learn about the man who shows up at an Iowa farmhouse.

The problem with having seen the movie version means it’s almost impossible to think of these characters without picturing Eastwood/Streep. Due to product placement we don’t get to see a Levis label tightly clinging to a male butt on screen. The book contains extras that didn’t make it to screen including the text of Kincaid’s letter to Francesca. As I’ve said it’s hard to think of the characters without picturing the movie version. Interesting that the author gave him his name Robert. This was an eternal love affair that couldn’t be.

Not a great read but one for the romantic in most of us.

The Clearing, Dan Newman

I may sound like a broken record but I wish writers edited their texts or had someone who knows what they’re doing do so. This story jumps from the narrator’s past as a child on the Caribbean Island of St Lucia to his adult self’s recent past in the US to the present in which he has returned to his ghosts on the Island. The story begins with 3 boys looking at the body of a fourth lying by a body of water. It jumps to the death of the narrator’s own son and then has him return to the island to rehash ghosts of the past. The story jumps in nightmare fashion from the past to the present seeming to grudgingly give up its details. The story draws on the influence of rich island families, local voodoo, and superstition. The author keeps the reader in the dark as to the exact details of the murder at the centre of this story until the very end.

Life of Pi

I bought a copy of Yann Martel's Life of Pi when it came out in 2001 and Self 1996 but will confess I got around to reading neither. Suppose I like to support Canadian writers. It took, it seems the production of this movie to garner the author enough attention to gain him a Booker Prize in 2012. Funny, I just finished reading about Lachlan MacQuarry, Viceroy to Australia who earlier served in Pondicherry, India. As the movie says, an Indian from the French part of India living in an Indian section of Montreal, Quebec.

Before I watch this DVD a second time I should read the book. There’s a lot happening here and since only one of the principal characters has the power of speech a great deal of the dialogue is stream of consciousness in Pi’s mind. The overall effect is somewhat overwhelming however the book is excellent reading.

The book begins with two joint themes: the origin of Pi’s name and the philosophy of zoo keeping. Children can be cruel and parents do their children a disservice when they saddle them with odd-sounding names. Pi was named for his Uncle's favourite public pool in Paris a word that phonetically sounds like "Pissing". There are countries that now refuse to register controversial or unusual children's names, but our subject had no such luck. We tend to anthropomorphize animals and romanticize their desire to be free. Animals can be treated cruelly but arguments over whether captivity in a well-run zoo is inhumane continue to this day. Would the animal, given its ability to choose, rather live in the wild or in captivity and is their return to their cages a conditioned response? Certainly most animals live much longer in captivity than they would in the wild due to the care of zoo vets, lack of parasites, and regular proper nutrition.

The book moves on to describe his inquiries into religion. Pi sees no conflict in being actively involved in at least 4 distinct religious observances simultaneously. As his brother says, (Hindu) Temple on Thursday, Mosque on Friday, Synagogue on Saturday, Church on Sunday; three more and you could be on vacation the rest of your life. He requests baptism and a prayer rug. Whereas Hinduism has millions of God’s, the others believe in One God so Pi reasons in going to different holy places he is worshipping the same God. The altercation that occurs when three of his mentors meet Pi and his family in Chapter 24 is hilarious.

As an aside billions of people give no second thought to the fact that they keep a former wolf in their home, the domesticated dog. The dog retains its canine habits adopting its human family as its pack and their home as its territory. We do object to its flagging its indoor territory with scent markers but every dog walker can testify to the fact that they mark it out of doors. I would argue that keeping a large dog in a small city apartment, with little opportunity to run free, is inhumane and many dogs suffer stress because of it. On the other hand the animals in a zoo may become sensitized to the presence of humans in close proximity but remain savage, undomesticated creatures of the wild. Whether a cat is ever truly domesticated is open for debate.

Part 2 jumps over the sinking of Pi’s ship to his life drifting in a lifeboat on the Pacific Ocean. From the Malay Peninsula to Mexico the Pacific is 11,000 miles wide. A drifting lifeboat should make it in just over 2 years, we know that Bligh and his men did make it after the Bounty Mutiny near Figi.

The second half of the book became tedious for me so I put it down for months. Read the last 100 pages in two sittings. Pi’s conversations with the two Japanese investigators make a sick and recovering boy sound acutely intelligent and just a little flippant. One can believe they had trouble buying his story. Interesting interpretation of his second story. And there the book ends.

February

Lisa More’s February follows the life of one of the families who lost husbands, fathers, and sons in the sinking of the Ocean Ranger on February 15, 1982 on Hibernia Oil Fields of the Grand Banks amid winds of 120 mph in nearly 500 ft of water. At the time the largest semi-submersible Oil Drilling Platform afloat it went down due to weather, design deficiencies, and lack of crew training. Rescue drills are boring and companies prefer to train employees on the job rather than send them to class so they can get productive work out of them while they learn. When the loss of an unbreakable window resulted in the flooding of a ballast control room its control panel was shorted and the fact that no one knew how to operate the system manually resulted in a list that caused the vessel’s rapid sinking. With 65-ft waves rescue vessels lacked equipment to pick up survivors in the water or in life rafts. In Mid-February the men rapidly succumbed to hypothermia and drowning. For the record Valentines Day was a Sunday that year. To this day helicopter service to these platforms remains an issue and a recent story reported that rafts designed to hold 60 men defined a man as 160 pounds. What six foot two inch man is that kind of bone rack? So why do men work on these rigs? The pay.

Work on these rigs was and is a young man’s game. Twenty-five-year-olds still feel themselves immortal. They work their shifts, they come ashore, they carouse, they plant their seed, and they return to the rig. Disasters resulting in loss of many lives are nothing new in Newfoundland. On Canada Day, July 1st Flags hang at half mast marking the destruction of the Newfoundland Regiment at Beaumont Hammel in 1916. Numerous sealing disasters on the ice and ships sunk in the stormy shallow waters of the Grand Banks without a trace have resulted in multiple losses of life. Arrow Air Flight 1285 that claimed the lives of 285 American Soldiers at Gander in December 1985 after a refueling stop-over.

But can you imagine getting your husband’s Valentines Card the day you go to claim his body. Or giving birth to his child after his death. Waiting the indeterminable time without financial support for a settlement from his employer and then dealing with that lump sum payment. The nightmares and juvenile delinquency his fatherless children suffer. Waking daily to the growing awareness that this time he will never return. Dealing with all the quotidian minutia of life without a husband’s support. Getting on with your life despite your grief.

If you missed all the hoopla surrounding the book’s Canada Reads 2013 win it explores the events as they affected a single family at the time; in memory the courtship, marriage, and life together of husband and wife; and the lives of his parents, the wife, and their children in the decades following. Once you start reading this book it is almost impossible to put down. As a non-smoker I had a laugh when a water sprinkler comes on when Lillian tries to sneak a smoke in the washroom on the bus.

Paper Moon

The title is derived from a WW#2 Song that crops up frequently in the story. Similar in theme to the Boy I Loved but not specifically a sequel introducing new characters. Bobby is impossibly handsome and knows it, guys and girls mooning over him, a photographer paying him to play model and fans snapping up his photos. What happens when he is hideously disfigured in a plane crash and can’t bear to look at his own reflection in a mirror or bear the stares of those around him. With the best of intentions we hurt the people we love most. Once more I wish someone had done some closer editing but it’s an okay read.

The Fall of the Year

Howard Frank Mosher’s The Fall of the Year is more a series of vignettes than a conventional novel but it captures a snapshot of tiny Kingdom Common amid the Green Mountains of Northern Vermont near the Quebec Border of Canada. The narrator Frank has come home to spend the summer with his uncle and adopted Father, George the parish priest who coaches the local baseball team, hunts and fishes. Little Quebec and Irishtown in cruder hands would seem caricatures. Filled with the odd characters that inhabit any backwoods community, they are lovingly portrayed as accepted members of society. There’s even room for a riff on Romeo and Juliette. The book even gave me opportunity for a rip roaring belly laugh. I’ve owned this book for 15 years, how is it I’ve waited so long to read it!

Bring Up the Bodies

As the blacksmith's son rises to power he is constantly reminded that though he may presently enjoy the King's favour he is not noble borne and those that are though they may submit to his judgments while that favour lasts, petty jealousies have them sharpening their knives for the day it ceases. Those who fall out of the King's favour do not usually live to write their memoirs and foreshadowings of that end show up in this volume. As book 2 draws to its close wife number 2 heads to The Tower and number 3 comes to prominence.

In this second novel of the series Mantel is more precise in indicating who is talking. Court as depicted feels like a snake-pit of conflicting interests, petty jealousies, and gossip. One is left to wonder, is this any way to run a country? Given the constant crowd of hangers-on surrounding Henry the lack of privacy and a desire to get away from it all would drive an ordinary mortal to distraction. Does a courtier literally wipe his ass? Through it all Cromwell is a constant of efficiency and order. However Harry may have valued his abilities lesser men envied his position and felt slighted that a man of such low birth enjoyed such power.

The King is depicted as willful, self-indulgent, prideful, and moody. One is left with the nagging suspicion that the man who went through 6 wives in search of a male heir may have been impotent. Did his wives commit adultery as a means of conceiving? No spoilers here as the historical facts are not in question. The book comes off as a work of fiction because the detail it provides is conjecture, Samuel Pepys was not around to record the minutia of these people's lives. There are times this reads like a Russian Novel characters referred to severally by their given names, their noble titles, their nick names, their offices, their church positions, their landed seats.

The final hundred pages read like an inquisition and as the author has Cromwell relate to a minion the process is not about finding truth, justice, or guilt; but finding appropriate guilty parties and settling old scores.

Take Me With You

Once in a blue moon one encounters a book that just demands to be read and for me this was such a book. The storyline involves Alcoholism, coming of age, grieving the death of a child, and camping in an RV. The description of scenes from Joshua Tree, Zion, Arches, Canyonlands brought back memories and the other parks a desire to see new lands. With all the grammar and spell-checking software available today I’m mystified as to why so many errors still evade publishers and authors but this volume is better than most. Highly recommended. Kudos to Goodreads for directing me to this book.

Jet (I)

Maya was an orphan neglected and serially abused. Possessed of a great mind and gifted with stunning genetic beauty and athleticism she was recruited by Mossad during her 2-year compulsory service in the Israeli military. In a secret service she is recruited to an elite force so secret it has no name. These agents have no identity, no family outside the service, no moral compass, no life. This begs the question, what distinguishes them from the terrorists they supposedly fight. You fight your way into this service through hard work, no one leaves it alive. Hyper-vigilance, trusting no one, and the need to constantly hone one’s skills and be on one’s guard will follow one for the rest of one’s life, or it will be a short life.

The book begins with a bang as Maya is attacked by three men one with a garrot, another with a custom-made silencer, and a third who failed to make it through the door. She doesn’t wait around to find if there are more but there are. The story is filled with brutal violence involving a woman. Think Ziva on NCIS. It reads like one of those ultra-violent video games. A hard-luck case from early childhood her fortunes do not improve, terminating with extreme prejudice seems to be the only thing she’s really good at.

Well edited and readable with a storyline with enough action to carry you along if you don’t mind the violence a decent read.

Jet: Ops Files

A black ops action adventure, this being the prequel to an entire series of novels. Since it is obvious that there is no series without the chief protagonist much of the tension is relieved leaving only the question of how she manages to pull herself out of each successive scrape. Well edited and matter of fact in its approach like its heroine the action proceeds apace. We are left in no doubt as to who the bad guys are, matters are rather black and white. Not great literature but an acceptable means of passing a bit of time.

Paper Towns

Read this book to see what else the writer of The Fault in Our Stars had written. The book starts out well but somehow begins to drag in the middle. The last section becomes an extended road trip. I’m afraid I finished it just so I could say I did so. The over-arching theme is our perception of ourselves and others. There’s the way we see another, the persona they attempt to project, the way they see themselves, and the true persona that even the individual himself may fail to recognize. The way we see ourselves often differs from the way others see us.

Shane

by Jack Schaefer

A book written in the year of my birth it epitomizes the ethos of the legendary wild west gunfighter, who having once established his reputation found it impossible to escape it. And so a man named only Shane rides into the life of a pioneering farm family in cattle country, a land where fences and barbed wire were fighting words and open range reigned supreme. Shane is lean and rock hard, ever vigilant with a haunted, hunted look in his eyes. We get the sense of a coiled spring ready to jump into action instantly at need. There is deep irony in seeing such a man wield an ax, till the soil, or mend fence but he does it with grace and absolute economy of motion, no effort wasted. When the inevitable confrontation comes our hero reluctantly proves himself equally adept with his fists as he is fast with the draw. But when he can barely keep his feet after beating down a gang of tough cowhands he is described as being carried out of the bar like a child. He rides off into the sunset gut-shot with what was probably a fatal wound but legends can never die. Several movie versions of the book have been made but you owe it to yourself to read the original.

Dangerous

By Suzannah Daniels

Dangerous has two principal characters: Stone, the hard-bodied motorcycle riding loner who just happens to work with Tom at a bookstore and Dara, the pretty socialite who lives with her Grandma, drives her granny’s old clunker and comes to work at the same store to earn money to buy a car of her own. The sexual tension between the two is palpable. The book is written in the first person alternately from each character’s point of view. Will opposites attract and will the bad boy who exudes sexual charisma get the good girl with the good looks and grades, does he even want to.

Stone had a twin named Luke who died in an accident he doesn’t want to talk about. We get the impression that he was somehow responsible. Can he work through his anger and grief to learn to love and commit to someone else? Although the storyline is generally predictable it still manages to throw us a few curves. This is definitely a teenage romance novel but somehow it manages to be more than that.

The Fault in Our Stars

John Green it seems is a wildly popular young adult writer also famous for a video blog shared with his brother and the world on you-Tube. The book in question is written from the point of view of a girl dying of cancer who meets a tall handsome young cancer survivor at a support group with whom it is mutual love at first sight. Both are wildly articulate as were Judd Apatow’s characters or Kevin Williamson’s on Dawson’s Creek. Call them old souls or old beyond their years. What sets this book and the movies apart is the fact that the teens in question frankly share the emotions and urges common to people their age. Boys see a pretty girl, their bodies react, and they describe their urges--that does not mean they intend to immediately jump her bones. Is it sinful to think they’d like to? I’m no teenager with raging hormones, in fact the fewer the better for my prostate, but the book is well-written and edited, and eminently readable.

Interesting that the producers found a young pair who epitomized the characters described in the book who additionally shared what is called chemistry and the movie version is topping the charts over the usual crop of action-adventure summer blockbusters--eat your heart out Tom Cruise. What sets both book and movie apart from the usual disease of the week flick is the fact that it’s about living not dying. Not every young male would feel secure enough in his masculinity to allow a girl drive his car when he takes her home because his prosthetic leg makes his driving erratic. It will be interesting to see if this made it to the movie. Given that I began writing this on Father’s Day I would also give a plug to the parents who raised these two.

Cancer victims aren’t given a choice in the matter of hanging tough. It’s either succumb to negativity and expire quickly or fight. It isn’t as if one can get conscientious objector status or be a coward and desert the fight. The title comes from a Shakesperean Sonnet. A lot of the philosophy comes from a ficticious book from a nonexistent authour. Will the trip to Holland make the movie? Since this is a young adult novel we are spared detailed descriptions of the pair’s love-making. What we can’t be spared is the inevitable ending. All people die, young people with cancer die young.

Boys For Sale

If I use the proper terms to describe the activities that go on in this book Amazon may not want to publish my review but I got the book from Amazon. The ‘action’ takes place in an unnamed city which would appear to be in South-East Asia which seems to be a destination of choice for Sexual Tourism. Boys are bought or kidnapped and sold as sex slaves for pedophiles who indulge in voyeurism, fondling, fellatio, and sodomy. The boys are imprisoned, drugged, abused, beaten, injured, and even murdered. I’m of two minds about the ethics of writing a book such as this one. Yes we should be made aware that two million children are bought and sold daily by sexual predators but I’d also be concerned that those same individuals would get off on reading the descriptions supplied here. Not for the faint of heart or those with delicate sensibilities. One wonders where the author got his information. For once a book that is well edited. 

Ganges Boy

After reading tales such as this one all I can say is that my soul revolts against the kind of abuse meted out against military recruits of all kinds, in this case teen-aged naval recruits. The idea of having to climb a 142-ft mast is something I don’t even want to think of. The randomness that matched a slender boy with a burly heavily-muscled brute as a boxing partner, fairness never enters the equation. Mess call was the only truly positive part of this recruit’s day. Once more I repeat that military discipline and me are polar opposites. The book could use some editing but it does follow its own logic, Naval Logic it seems.

Superbia

by Bernard Schaffer

Some men see psychiatrists, some take up martial arts, some lift weights or punch bags, and some write. Everyone finds a means of venting their demons or they’ll explode. This author apparently works in law enforcement. The book has an abrupt ending and the storyline is unfinished because there are indeed volumes 2 and 3 in the series. The writing style is straight forward and refreshingly well-edited for a change. This police procedural will carry you along but be warned the details can be graphic and squalid. The writer does not paint police in a particularly positive light. It will leave the reader wondering just where the dividing line between the good guys and the bad guys lies.

Allen Ginsberg: Selected Poems

If you’ve heard Howl, the long-form poem that made him famous you get the idea. Kaddish assigned to Naomi Ginsberg, his mad Mother, seems only appropriate in its convoluted wanderings to the madcap woman to whom it is dedicated. ECT, Insulin Shock Treatment, and Lobotomies were all performed in her day. Passing an electric current via electrodes through the brain to cause an epileptic like seizure seems barbaric but is still done in modified form today because as a last ditch solution for extreme depression it works. Decreasing the brain’s higher functions via lobotomy is no longer practised nor is inducing insulin coma, a procedure also used on Mrs Ginsberg. The fact that his mother was severely paranoid would seem to have had a lasting effect on Allen. I can’t imagine what it was like to have a person you loved react in this way.  More than a few of these poems give one the impression that the writer was high on one mind-altering drug or another. Attempting to make sense or dissect many of these wandering lines would tend to render the reader more than a little mad as well.

To say that Ginsberg is a dirty old man begs the question. Many of these poems are homoerotic in the extreme. A couple decades ago I decided I wanted to learn about the beat poets. Having read most of them I’m no closer to a definition of what that is. Most seem to have been gay and were active in the Vietnam War era inveighing against that involvement. There’s an environmental component but most seem to be more consumers than protectionist. In the second half of this collection the poems start having a rhyme scheme and are set to music which is supplied. No I haven’t tried to sing them.

Bad Apple 1:Sweet Cider

What can I say? Like so many e-Books I've read lately this one could use
more careful editing. A girl named Neal lives in an extremely
dysfunctional family. The book begins with the murder of the most
significant person in her young life. All these negative vibes are
relieved somewhat when she comes into the embrace of a caring loving
family but the lass has been raised to expect negation at every turn.
This freebee is a teaser for the books to follow in this series. The
book is highly readable if predictable but leaves the reader feeling
rather unsettled. The title comes from Aunt Mabel's cider press.

Girls Love Travis Walker

Nineteen-year-old Travis has that charm that women find irresistible but
sexy isn't everything; his father's a jailed felon, his mother a
deadbeat, and they're about to be evicted from their crummy apartment.
Work is messing with his schooling. Travis is an amoral love 'em and
leave 'em kind of guy who suddenly becomes rather confused when he meets
a gal who can resist his charms. But the past has a habit of catching up
with one. How does he persuade this gal he wants more than a roll in the
hay with her? In the meantime he needs to finish school and find a
permanent job before he faces life on the street.

I keep reminding myself that this book was written by a woman. There is
a great deal more here than a high school romance. My only complaint is
that the storyline wraps up in a supposed happy ending all too quickly
and easily. Life isn't that simple and generally doesn't come with
fairytale endings.

The Boy I love

Set among working-class people in the English Midlands in the wake of
WW#1 there is only one woman in this love quadrangle. Paul, blinded in
one eye left medical school to go to war. After returning he marries his
dead brother Robbie's betrothed pregnant with his brother's child and
daughter of the local Anglican Priest. Child of the town doctor whose
wife died giving him birth Paul has had a life-long closeted
relationship with Adam and is being stalked by the local butcher Phil
who returned from war to take over the family business after his parents
died in a car accident. Phil has an identical twin brother Mick
invalided to a wheel chair by the war whom he cares for and a
counter-girl Hetty who has designs on him. Who knew so much intrigue lay
under the surface of sleepy little town?

Call the above spoilers or necessary background it is the execution that
makes this book worth reading. If good writers could bottle the formula
that makes for good writing and dialogue they'd make a fortune. Not only
does the book engage the reader from the opening pages but the editing
is excellent as well. The free preview is far more generous than most so
try it and you'll be hooked as well especially at the price. Alas, the
story drags somewhat in the middle. This is book one of a trilogy. The
Boy I Love is a song one of the men in the trenches sang.

The Graveyard Book

A book only Neil Gaiman could have written. Think Harry Potter, a boy
who survived the annihilation of the rest of his family is given into
the care of the ghosts in a graveyard. Not as ghoulish in the execution
as it first sounds. Still it is a tale that could only have come from
the pen of Gaiman who remains one of the most original fantasy writers
of our age.

Never Say Die

Nick Thrasher is the product of his Mother's dalliance with a white
Southerner but he identifies with his inuvialuit Grandfather Jonah. The
main action of the book occurs when Nick goes rafting down the Firth
River in Northern Canada with his older half-brother Ryan Powers, a
Nature Photographer for National Geographic. This is a short easy
action-packed read aimed at young-adult readers that packs an
environmental message.

In Too Deep

By Kathryn Shay

In Too Deep is an extremely popular book title. The Romance Genre is a major employer of hunky models though most wear far fewer clothes. No word on whether this one actually fights fires or just lights them.

A pair of fire-fighters trapped in an enclosed space and running out of oxygen do the deed. He’s her captain. After all that hot action the rest of the novella is about what happens after their rescue.

A very different type of fire story from Larry Brown’s On Fire and not just because this one is written by a woman who is not a fireman.

Fearless

Coming of Age, Coming Out, Gay Romance has become a genre so littered with poorly written semi-biographical prose it has become a mine-field of angst and tortured emotion. Finding an entry into this genre that is original and well-done is refreshing. Yes the storyline is totally predictable and telegraphs every plot twist but the characters come alive on the page--well tablet screen--so vividly one doesn't mind; this is not a murder mystery. The authour evokes the high school experience with such realism I felt like a teenager again. The way the book ends it seems to be setting one up to buy a sequel.

On Fire

 

 

Larry Brown’s novels are salt of the earth tales of the common man written with great sympathy and care for his subjects and remarkable realism. In writing about himself he is no less candid revealing a red-necked good ole boy who smokes, drinks and drives, and keeps his wife waiting while he goes out with the boys. He enjoys hunting and fishing and appears to have a careless accident prone streak. As a fireman he is equally dismissive of the dumb things people do and laughs at the discomfort of a facilities manager who sees him smash $1500 windows to ventilate a fire. Fireman in their gung ho desire to knock down a fire have been known to cause more damage than the fire itself.

This is a memoir for Larry Brown aficionados. It is by no means great literature. Episodic and disjointed in nature it jumps from personal details and opinions to biographical vignettes to fire tales in no organized order. 

They Met at Shiloh

Phillip Bryant’s book is not your everyday Civil War story. It personalizes the war following the human journey of an artillary battery and an infantry troop from opposite sides of the engagement. The last major war fought by troops that lined up and fired on one another the cost in human life and mysery is incalculable. Compared with cruise missiles and drones launched from vast distances and sniper rifles that can shoot from a mile away this war was up close and personal. A don’t shoot until you can see the whites of their eyes kind of war.

Yes there are battles but as we switch back and forth between North and South, Union and Rebel it is the human touch that assumes importance. Waiting for coffee to brew. Looking for the bodies of missing comrades, burial details, camp life,  bravery and cowardice. A wounded or dying man knows no side nor does he care from whence cometh his aide. The common soldier supports his unit; the cause matters little in the long run. The man he kills is not all that different from himself. In this war they may even have been neighbours. In death and injury they rest together.

Earthquakes

Subtitled the Felix Cooch Chronicles this would seem to be an attempt by
an author best known for his gay romance writing to enter the
mainstream. If you can get past the frequent 'f bombs' this is a decent
adventure mystery novel. Freshly graduated from journalism school our
hero finds himself on the run from the mob with his mother and her best
friend. After finding their feet in California Cooch goes off to fight
the war in Vietnam where his misadventures continue. At heart a decent
likable character Felix' story will engage the reader and carry you along.

By the second half of the novel Felix/Jason has become far less likable
sinking to murder, larceny, revenge. The author's editing also becomes
sloppy as if the book were tossed off to make some money on the e-Book
market. It's as if someone else wrote this book and used the author's
name. I'm disappointed. Alas, it gets worse, the book ends in the middle
of the story with the plot totally unresolved--and I paid good money for
this manipulation.

Wolf Hall

Hilary Mantell's Wolf Hall begins with Thomas Cromwell being viciously
beaten by his abusive father Walter a blacksmith, innkeeper and brewer
of indifferent ale. Fourteen pages later he is assistant to the Cardinal
of York. I suppose this betokens the fact that little is known of what
transpired between but even so quite a leap wouldn't you say.

Referred to is the fact that Cardinal Wolsey, in seeming a celibate
priest has a son as does Thomas, but the king does not and wants his
marriage of 18 years annulled. The facts here are a matter of history,
it is Mantell's fresh approach to them that makes this book worth the
reading.

There are a parcel of Thomases in this book:
Thomas Cromwell
Thomas Wolsey
Thomas More
Thomas Boleyn
Thomas Howard
Thomas Cranmer
Thomas Seymour
Thomas Wyatt
Thomas Avery
St Thomas a Becket
Just to name some of them. As is commented in the text keeping them all
straight is no small matter. Mantell's writing style style requires one
to remain diligently alert or it is easy to lose track of who is talking.

Reading about the politics, the horsetrading, and machinations of Thomas
Wolsey it is difficult to remember that as Archbishop of York and a
Cardinal he is a Holy Catholic Priest. With all his dirty dealings and
hair-splitting he seems more a politician than a holy man. Cromwell is a
lawyer and a businessman and does scutwork for the Cardinal.

With the fall of Wolsey Cromwell takes his place as the story
progresses. As the book ends Sir Thomas More is beheaded and Cromwell is
headed toward Wolf Hall. It is 1535 and Ann Boleyn has fallen out of
favour with Henry her husband and her trials are about to begin.
Cromwell himself has but 5 more years before he too loses Henry's favour
and his own life. Before that time Mantel will spin two more books.

This is a work of fiction that relates historic facts. As is often the
case fiction is truer to life and more readable and engaging than bald
facts. Be warned that the book makes no bones about prelates and kings
alike being self-serving and less than devote. It was a violent age and
public burnings at the stake, beheadings, and dis-embowelings were
public sport.

The Tinsmith

Tim Bowling is a favourite Canadian author whose father was a Frazer
River salmon fisherman in Ladner, BC. Lacking an aptitude for his
father's dying profession he moved to Edmonton, Alberta a province
without a coastline. Naturally he writes often about fishing but this
time round he has chosen the Battle of Antietam during the American
Civil War as the setting for his novel about an army surgeon.

Equally at home in poetry or prose I have yet to read a book of his I
didn't like. Although the subject of this book is rather grisly it is no
exception. One is engaged from the first pages feeling the exhaustion of
the surgeon at his desperate business days on end without rest. Part II
returns us to Bowling's home turf on the Fraser.

The doctor's life is intertwined with that of a white slave he met
during the war. The progeny of inter-racial couplings are often white in
colour but to racists the taint of their African heritage is obvious.
The book is not a polemic against slavery but the author's sentiments
are obvious. To the salmon fishermen of the Fraser any competition is
frowned upon, the hint that that competitor may be black condemns him.

All Souls

All Souls: A Family Story from Southie
Michael Patrick MacDonald

One maintains fond memories of home, even if it was one of the worst slums in America. Growing up in a stable farming community in rural Nova Scotia I have no grasp of what it would mean to  be robbed on the way to the store or fear to go out at night. To be white in a black slum and victimized because one was different. My first real exposure to such concepts was reading Lethem’s Fortress of Solitude. The relief that came from moving into an Irish-American Neighbourhood. To be incensed when racial integration saw those same Blacks forcibly bussed into your neighbourhood.

Poverty, substandard housing, single-parent families, lack of education, alcoholism, drugs, ill-health, malnutrition, crime, gangs; beatings, rape, murder, gang warfare, robbery. Growing up with these as an everyday experience would certainly influence one’s perspective and value system. That such conditions exist offends my sensibilities. MacDonald writes of shoplifting, grifting, thieving as a means of survival not as criminal activity.

Have you ever gotten the feeling while you were reading a book, this starts to feel like something I’ve read before. When I searched back through my Library database I finally came to the realization that I read this book in paperback when it came out in 1999. Can I be forgiven for forgetting after a decade and a half? It was a good read then and it still is. Just don’t expect happy endings.

A March of Kings

An entire entitled generation has grown up having been taught that self-expression trumpeted learning the disciplines of spelling and grammar. Compound this with the shorthand and jargon of texting and instant messaging and one has an entire generation that wonder what grammarians such as myself are carping about. Book two is an improvement over Book one of this series but it still contains many glaring clunkers. When the aim is to create a suspension of disbelief awkward speech patterns and expressions jank the reader away from the fantasy world and back to reality. Although the storyline is moderately interesting the execution is lacking. I won’t be investing in books 3-10.

A Quest of Heroes

A Quest of Heroes
Book # 1 in the Sorcerer's Ring
by Morgan Rice

I begin to feel I sound like a broken record. In this age of e-Books
doesn't anyone edit their text? This author has apparently written at
least 22 books, surely by now she could afford an editor. This is a
decent fantasy novel marred by awkward constructions, missing or doubled
words, and homonym errors as in flower/flour. In this electronic age we
have become lulled into accepting text errors in newspapers and other
print media but when one starts encountering them at the rate of one per
page in a book it detracts from the reading experience. In spite of this
caveat this is an engaging read. I have book two queued up and ready to
read. One can only hope it is an improvement. A ten-book series seems
quite a challenge. Whether or not I read beyond book two is dependent on
the quality of the editing in that book.

Forever Mine

This young adult novel was offered free. I wasn't long in discovering
that it is aimed at a female audience. In a giddy high school romance
novel girls rate their guy's kissing abilities, their arousal states,
and even the size of their 'equipment'. Girls it would seem are as
guilty of sleeping around as the guys. Much of it reads like the
giggling gossip that goes on in a girl's locker room or on their cell
phones. A lot of the storyline is fueled by raging youthful hormones,
anxieties, and jealousies. The book confronts two serious issues. The
problems lying and deception can get you into and can a male and female
have a close relationship that is not sexual in nature. I generally
finished reading what I've started sooner or later but this one seemed
heavy going. If this is your thing go for it. Is it necessary to use
profanity to seem hip these days?

The Man From Snowy River

Ten years or so past I went looking to find the poem that inspired the Tom Burlison movie, The Man from Snowy River. After a Google or related search discovered I could download Banjo Patterson’s book for free from Gutenberg Press. The .zip file led me to download and install µBook Reader to cope with the file. After reading the titular poem I put the book aside until just recently. Anyone who has sung Waltzing Matilda whether drunk or sober knows that Aussies particularly those in the Outback where these poems are set have unique colloquial expressions many of which only loosely translate into common English and Patterson uses a lot of them. The poems are written in rhyming couplets a style that seems all to quaint in this age of blank verse. They benefit from being read aloud. No one will mistake this verse for Tennyson or Wordsworth but it is well worth a read.

The Legend of Devil's Creek

This book is one part ghost story, one part serial murder investigation,
and one part college philosophy class discussing the true nature of
evil. It is not until half way through the book that the reader begins
to get hints as to how the three fit together and who the perpetrator
might be. The philosophical discussions are on a level that make me wish
I'd have had a professor such as Bacavi when I studied the subject. This
is s good read though I do wonder that friends would continually refer
to one another by their last names.

Legon Restoration

Third in Nicholas Taylor's trilogy. The grammar in this outing is
somewhat improved. Recommended for those who have read the first two
books in the series. Book three builds steadily to the war foreshadowed
in Book two. Magical creatures wage war in nightmarish ways. The
gruesome descriptions make this a book not suitable for children. It is
no fairy tale.

Legon Ascension

So much fantasy writing is derivative of JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings
that it is refreshing to find writing in the genre that is original.
After the slow start in book one of this trilogy the writing picks up
and so does the plot. Humans it seems can transform into elves and elves
can become dragons and return to elvan form. Taylor's elves are
immortals leading to an extremely stable society but also one that
doesn't change. Imagine discovering the lad of 25 across the table from
you is 3000-years-old. For those such as myself unfamiliar with the
tradition of fairies or elves the books play on the supposed elvan
ability to make things grow and introduces us to buildings made of
living wood and seamless boats that can draw sustenance from the ocean.

The warfare and violence inherent in the storyline make this an adult
read. The book suffers from repeated words, awkward constructions, and
unclear wordings that mark writing that could use some judicious
editing. Proper spelling, grammar, and syntactical construction seem to
be a thing of the past. In the context of the novel the title leads one
to assume that Legon will become a dragon but the author keeps us
waiting the entire novel for the event.

Over The Edge

As Seth’s wife Caillie arrives on the scene in book 3 we discover that she’s a rootin tootin cowgirl Winchester rifle, six-shooter and all. The story begins with a bang. In an age that predates knowledge of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder by at least a century Seth has a case severe enough to have forgotten a wife with whom he sired a child. Don’t expect great literature here but the characterizations are apt and the language not X Rated. The plot lines if predictable carry one along with enough action/adventure to keep it interesting. The book could use some careful editing but it’s better than average for these days. Enjoy!

In Too Deep

I hate being manipulated but after reading the first free volume in the Kincaid Trilogy I was motivated to buy book two and will probably break down and get book three, Over the Edge, as well. The genre is action-adventure western with a touch of romance thrown in. Although the author describes some advanced petting the books are refreshingly free of elaborate bedroom sexual gymnastics. The setting is Pikes Peak in the Colorado Territory in the period the storyline is set a rough and ready lawless frontier. There are, alas, the usual grammatical and spelling errors but fewer than usual and no profanity. People do get shot and injured and there is violence; it was a violent era. I have enjoyed the read or I wouldn’t be contemplating book three.

River On Fire

Randall is an orphan who lives in a small 8-client orphanage for boys run by a husband and wife and her cousin. As care-givers go the people who run the place are kind but the man believes in corporal punishment. They also believe in God but the boys receive no love and never any token of affection. At 18 or high school graduation they get cast out into the world on their own with no support and no preparation. One of Randall’s buddy’s joins the marines and since this is the 60ies promptly ends up in Vietnam where he is killed shortly after arriving. Randall isn’t long in learning the stigma attached to being an orphan nor has he had any preparation in the social skills needed to deal with the opposite sex.

The book is written matter of factly from Randall’s point of view in the first person. It incorporates the events of the sixties: the Vietnam War, the various assassinations, Woodstock, forced school integration. Through it all Randall highlights the discrimination unique being an orphan. Strange to think that joining the army would be seen as a step up in life. The book has some editing errors but overall it’s a good read.

American Warrior

by James Snyder

Paul is the under-sized son of an abusive father who will not allow him to read books in his own home. In a neighbourhood where low man on the totem pole gets beat down he is at the bottom of the pecking order. First day on his new paper route he finds a dead body. When an old customer rescues him from a beating and robbery in the barrio he persuades his benefactor to teach him an ancient Javanese Martial Art. The story moves on as the title suggests to see him choose the military over jail and given the period involved he ends up in Vietnam with an elite green beret unit operating in a theatre that officially does not exist. Unlike so many others he thrives on the action.

The book makes no moral judgments in describing the action. Paul is a soldier who is good at what he does. Betrayed by his inept leaders he finds his way home and ironically into the military prison system he joined to avoid. There he is tortured and subjected to psychological warfare. The injustice of training a man in black ops and then being embarrassed to have him around outraged this reader. Another writer depicts how America botched the war in Vietnam and betrayed the soldiers it sent to wage it.

The Christmas Throwaway

I’m always mystified as to why when the process takes only a few mouse clicks an author fails to justify the text of their writing. The writer has set a gay romance novel at Christmas. This is a coming of age story, literally, but the protagonists are already out; for the almost 18-year-old the issue that sees him homeless. Life in a small town can feel claustrophobic but it has its good points as well. Everything is close by, everyone knows everyone else, crime is low. The last time the jail cells were used was 15 years ago to allow some drunk teens to cool off.

The plot here is eminently predictable but even so it is the process of arriving there that makes this a decent read. Not great literature but heartwarming. The final chapters describe man on man action leaving one to remind oneself that the writer is a woman. Given the profanities used one wonders at the reluctance to use the words for male genitalia. I’m not sure the sex scene adds anything to the story.

the country ahead of us, the country behind

From the author of Snow Falling on Cedars a collection of ten short stories principally about hunting and fishing most involving teens. A good collection for the outdoorsmen in your midst. Like most good short stories little snatches of reality wrapped up in 8 to 20 pages.

God's Memory Part 2

By Michael Landsberg

In book 2 we learn the origin of the title which is the meaning of a terrorist’s name in Hebrew. We jump back once more to the 1600’s to learn how Jewish Bankers began the practice of using paper bank notes rather than gold coin. Concomitant was the rise of a white collar middle class seen by working people as producing nothing of a useful nature but rather victimizing manual laborers. This also bolstered anti-Semitism. In the present day we return to the world of spies, politics, and torture; the men in power and the moneymen who pull their strings. The action-adventure that begins the book turns polemical as the two adversaries preach lengthy sermons at one another that tend to go on and on and on. These philosophical tomes seem to be the ultimate aim of the book. The ending is rather bland and unsatisfying.

Legon Awekening

By Nicholas Taylor

A better than average fantasy the book suffers from the all too common problem these days of poor editing. Spelling errors spoil what would otherwise be a first rate story. The plot takes a while to develop and even longer for the various storylines to mesh but when they finally do the reader who sticks with it will become engrossed in the action. As we get introduced to the world of elves and dragons the exposition leaves us somewhat confused.

Defending Jacob

Justice is what can be proven in a Court of Law

Scott Turow’s Presumed Innocent involves a DA leading the investigation into the gruesome murder of a colleague of which he is ultimately accused of committing and stands trial but is eventually exonerated after a self-serving, pompous, preening underling does a number on him. The parallels in William Landay’s present court room drama are uncanny save that here it is the DA’s teenage son who is accused of killing a classmate. This is not to say that this isn’t a great read, in many ways the better book, just that there are many similarities including the snapper ending. Neither book inspires much confidence in the justice system.

In a Small Town

I find it ironic that were I to quote the language used repeatedly in the first chapter of this book Amazon would refuse to publish my review. The use of this language adds nothing to the storyline and makes the author and his character appear vulgar and crude.

Sargent Friday Matt isn’t. When your superior officer acts outside the law and your captain appears to condone this kind of behaviour it places you in a rather compromising situation. Matters are complicated in a small town where two people constitute the entire detective department. Scratch an Italian in Hutchville and you probably aren’t too far from a mafia connection. Discovering that the FBI is sniffing around only thickens the plot.

Someone seems to have cleaned up the grammer and spelling since some of the other reviews were written but the language and situations described are not for delicate constitutions. The book still has a weak ending.

Introducing the Missional Church

Introducing the Missional Church

Alan J Roxburgh & Scott Doren

Mystery, Memory, Mission

These words are seen as describing the Christian Church.

Mystery in the sense of the divine which is beyond explanation and which will not yield to future scientific analysis.

Memory which goes beyond commemoration and embraces the event as co-participants. The Jews observe the Passover, we join with the entire priesthood of believers from every time and every place in Communion with the church universal and God himself who is present in, under and through the wine and bread we eat.

Mission The point is made that Mission is integral to the life of the Church, Christ’s body here on earth. Our goal is not to attract and keep members but to be God’s Servants to the world.

This is not something that can be encompassed by simple definitions or Mission Statements which serve to confine and constrict.

The writers of this book are true believers. In the end they are marketing a program that costs big bucks. I found the theological introduction interesting but whether or not you want to buy into the process is an individual corporate decision.

Ordinary Magic

Always a challenge to read the book after you’ve seen the movie. The movie version reviewed earlier this year on a sister blog was a Canadian CBC Production set in Paris on the Grand in Ontario. The book similarly begins in and around Madras, India but takes Ganesh to America instead. Whereas a movie shows you a book tells you and the narrative adds nuances one may have missed. And one catches the details changed for simplicity or to save time and improve pacing in the movie setting.

The resolution, when it comes, happens quickly and leaves the reader hanging. Most people’s lives do not have happily ever after fairytale endings.

Breakthrough

This book is a rare combination of Political/Military Intrigue, Environmental Science, and Alien Invasion. It takes some getting used to in the opening chapters as it jumps from the Pentagon to submarines, The Antarctic, the Miami Aquarium, The White House but slowly the strands coalesce into a thrilling nail-biter.

God's Memory

Not so sure what God has to do with this tale of spies, terrorists, and assassins. The action jumps from America to the Middle East to the Ukraine and walks the halls power, politics, money, and the backroom boys who watch the watchers. What the book does offer is insights into the nature of public relations and media manipulation and the way in which public opinion is manipulated. It takes a while to figure out who all the players are and how they interact before the plot gets truly interesting.

The Call of the Canyon

Another Zane Grey Western Romance. This one set in New York City and a canyon in Arizona within view of the Painted Desert. Emphasis here on romance with the landscape coming a definite distant second. Much of the North-Eastern Section of Arizona is the territory to which many Indian Bands were exiled, the Painted Desert is just to the south near the New Mexico Border. As the book begins Glenn has just returned from WW#1 where he was gassed and endured unconscionable hardships that left him sick and injured in mind, body, and soul. To recover he headed west to recover his health. That he does is a minor miracle and one that weds him to this rough and ready frontier life. The storyline then revolves around whether or not his betrothed Carley can persuade him to come back East to the life of ease and luxury that is her milieu or if the lure of adventure, wide open spaces, and Glenn’s love can tempt Carley to give it all up and move into a rude cabin with Glenn. To add spice there’s girl he met out west and a cowboy who loves that girl. I fear I’ve read one too many Western Romances to fully enjoy this but the quality of Grey’s writing holds up throughout.

American Boy

I have an initial problem with Larry Watson’s book. I find it difficult to believe that any reputable doctor would take two teenage boys into his examination room to view a naked comatose female patient. That quibble aside this is a typical Larry Watson novel. Raw, unflinching, true to life.

Matthew Garth is a fatherless boy from the wrong side of the tracks who is befriended by a classmate, the doctor’s son in a small town where a doctor is held in high esteem. While treated like a member of his friend’s family he is never unaware of his place in the scheme of things. The boys indulge in the usual teenage hijinks: drinking, racing cars, and fantasizing about girls. In the end though Matthew displays remarkable maturity for a 17-year-old. Make no mistake, this is an adult novel.

The Rockin' Chair

By Steven Manchester

A bit too sentimental and mushy for some tastes. After his wife of many years dies of Alzheimers an old Farmer sits in the Rocking Chair on his front porch and ruminates about his estranged relationship with his only son and the lives of his three grandchildren. His mainstay has been his daughter-in-law. The book’s most poignant insights are into the nature of the relationships between fathers and sons. We are dealing with 3 adult generations here. Teenage sons feel obligated to rebel against their parents but maintain an easy relationship with their grandparents. The issue would seem to be finding a means of severing the familial bond of dependency without creating a permanent rift.

Little House in the Big Woods

I will confess to having not seen any of the 205 episodes of Little House on the Prairie but I am curious to read at least one of her books after driving through Laura Ingalls Wilder Territory. I say this because I was fascinated to discover that no less than 5 locations claim to be her birthplace. I’ve heard of being born again but this is ridiculous. It would seem that her father was extremely peripatetic as I encountered at least a score of locations that claim some relationship with her as her homestead or place of residence. I remember commenting at the time that if she was going to become famous it was good of her to spread the wealth around.

Many of the activities described remind me of my own years on a country farm in Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia. Our woods wasn’t quite as all-pervasive and we weren’t threatened by wolves, cougars or bears but we did churn our own butter, make our own bread, do our own butchering, pickle and smoke meat to preserve it. We did not use a fire place and we had a hand pump but almost everything else seems familiar.

The book reads somewhat like a museum piece and seems somewhat idealized as seen through the eyes of a child. Don’t expect it to be too much like the TV Show. The most lasting impression one is left with is the fact that these people had none of the labour-saving devices we take for granted today. They would have balked at being termed poor but they lived a subsistence existence producing everything they needed save for the coffee, tea, and molasses that wouldn’t grow in Northern Minnesota. Tapping maple trees to make sugar, sewing and knitting their own clothes, making lye soap, heating water to have a bath in a metal tub. They may have been self-reliant but they spent nearly every waking hour seeing to the essentials of life. There was little time to read, playing the violin was a luxury and family gatherings and dances were a rare treat. No wonder young adults looked back so fondly at their years of childhood play!

The Lightning Thief

In this young adult novel twelve-year-old misfit student Percy learns that he is an immortal, or at least a demi-god. This is the year that Charles Philip Arthur George Windsor becomes a senior citizen. If he manages to outlive his mother Elizabeth Alexandra Mary now 87 whose mother lived to 102 he will become king or failing that his son William Philip Arthur Louis age 31. Now imagine that you are the offspring of Zeus or Jupiter. These Greek or Roman Gods are immortal. As such succession is an impossibility. What’s a bored immortal godling to do? Hanky panky with humans is one possible amusement; hence we have Percy. Quite a mouthful to swallow just after escaping the horns of the Minotaur. Now imagine Mount Olympus on Long Island.

Restored and healed by water and having an ability for sword-play he had no idea he possessed Perseus, Lightning Thief is sent on a quest. If you think these kids get into a great deal of trouble along the way remember these are twelve-year-olds out on their own. Their curiosity and sense of adventure keep them constantly in hot water. Not a great book but moderately interesting if for nothing else it’s treatment of Greek Myth.